frances 
This mouth-watering pesto bacon pizza recipe is something you will not get enough of. Not exactly the healthiest option that I’d encourage as a daily thing.
The great thing about pizza is that you have the liberty of being creative with the sauce and toppings. If you are also making the pizza dough from scratch, you can add more of the things you like for a personal touch (i.e. cheese… drool). Making the pizza crust from scratch is optional, you can always buy pizza dough from the store. However, this in-a-hurry crust recipe is so easy to follow that you’ll ask yourself why you don’t make it more often!
Feel free to eyeball the amount of ingredients you load onto the pizza before you slide it into the oven. You can bake the pizza with or without a pizza stone (I just happened to have one).
Pesto Bacon Pizza Recipe
YIELDS: 1 x 12 -inch pizza
TIME: 1 HOUR
CREDITS: Crust inspired by CHEF RIDER’s Quick and Easy Pizza Crust on Allrecipes.
INGREDIENTS
Pizza Crust (optional, you can use store bought pizza dough)
0.25 oz. Active dry yeast (2-1/4 tspn.)
1 tspn. sugar
1 cup warm water
2.5 cups Bread flour
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tspn. salt
3 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1/4 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
1/2 tsp. dried parsley (optional)
Toppings
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
5 Large White Mushrooms, sliced (number depending on how much you like them)
250 to 300g Peameal Bacon. chopped
2.5 handfuls of Spinach
150 ml Pesto sauce Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
INSTRUCTIONS
Pizza Crust (optional, you can use store bought pizza dough)
1. Mix and dissolve the yeast, sugar and warm water, and set aside for 10 minutes. Then add olive oil, garlic, oregano and parsley, and mix well until smooth throughout. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes in a warm area.
Pizza Toppings: Pesto and Bacon
1. Place your pizza stone on the middle rack and pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees at least 30 minutes before bake time. This will heat the stone thoroughly and produce a wonderful and consistent crust. If you are not using a pizza stone, preheat the oven with a baking pan/pizza pan.
2. In a pan, drizzle in some cooking oil and heat the minced garlic on medium-low heat. Add mushrooms and sautée for about 5 minutes, until they shrink, then drain any accumulated liquid and set aside for later.
3. Now it’s time to roll out the dough! There are many ways to do this, but this is the way I’ve found easiest. Roughly trim a piece of baking parchment so that it is just bigger than the intended size of your pizza; you will be using this as your work station and also to lift and slide the pizza into the oven. Roll the pizza dough into a ball and completely coat it with flour so that is it no longer sticky to the touch. Push and pull the dough outwards and aim for an even thickness throughout. No crazy one-finger-pizza-tossing required!
4. Next, spread the pesto sauce evenly over the pizza crust 1/2 inch away from the edges. Sprinkle on spinach by the handful, be generous. It may look like a lot but because spinach cooks down, it will not overload your pizza. Continue by adding mushrooms in the same fashion and load on the peameal bacon! The sight of the bacon is when I start becoming very excited for what’s to come.
5. When you are ready, use the baking parchment to help you support the pizza while you manoeuvre it onto a pizza peal (or chopping board) and slide it into the oven. If you are using a baking pan, you will be sliding the baking sheet and pizza onto this pan. Bake for 8 – 15 minutes until crust is golden. Right before serving, grate some parmesan cheese on top (I prefer it when the cheese pieces are thin and large instead of powdery).
NOTES
While rolling out the pizza crust, if you make any holes, simply take the dough around the hole, pull gently, overlap the two pieces and press to seal, followed by some more pushing and pressing to even out the thickness. The point is to seal the entire crust surface so that nothing leaks through, super easy!
